Alameda County District Attorney violates Public Records Act

About six months back, I discovered a pattern of nepotism in hiring at the DA's office in Alameda. I saw an old article in the local legal paper, (would give credit, but not sure which one it was) and followed up on the lead.

It turned out the nepotism had gotten far worse after the first criticisms.

Alameda District Attorney Thomas Orloff routinely hires the children of the judges on the criminal courts. In this way, he ensures the judges are friendly to his side in cases.

This nepotism is much greater in Alameda than in all the other five Bay Area counties, plus Sacramento, COMBINED.

I did my research using Bar records, so I was only finding laywers in that office, but there are about as many non-lawyer staff as there are lawyers, (secretaries, paralegals, and investigators) so I asked Alameda County Human Resources Director Doris Eaton-May for a list of all the non-lawyer staff in the office.

She gave the case over to the DA, who refused to give up the information.

This refusal is not legal. These are the types of records the Public Records Act makes public.

They claim I might misuse the information -- yeah, Orloff, to show how much nepotism you are involved in --

But the truth is, the Public Records Act says if you give information to one person, you must give it to all, and conversely, if you do not give it to one, you must not give it to all. -- So, from a legal standpoint, they are claiming, beause one person might misuse this information, no one is ever entitled to see it.

This is clearly not in the public interest, and they do not say it outright, but that is the inescapable logic of their arguement.

I just wanted everyone to know what is going on in that office.

My web page is http://www.alamedacountyda.com

and the sup page on nepotism

http://www.alamedacountyda.com/Nepotism.html